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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25845520">Reflection's Glow</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/knittenkitten/pseuds/kei'>kei (knittenkitten)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Abstract setting, First Kiss, Hurt/Comfort, Injured Sora, M/M, Post-Canon, Sappy, a "reflection" of the KH2 ending so to speak</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 05:08:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,515</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25845520</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/knittenkitten/pseuds/kei</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>As twilight turns to dawn, this time, Riku carries Sora home.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>67</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Re⊕Collect: A Soriku Fic Collection</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Reflection's Glow</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As Riku carried Sora away from yet another tough battle—the type of battle he could still hardly believe was theirs to fight—he was struck by three observations.</p>
<p>The first was that Sora was a lot lighter than he remembered. Was that because Sora was small, because Riku had grown so much stronger, or both?</p>
<p>The second was that Sora was incredibly warm. He’d held and hugged and noogied Sora countless times over the years, but this still caught him by surprise. Perhaps it was the kind of quirk you didn’t register when the average daily temperature was over 80 degrees; here, it was a noticeably comforting blanket in the cold and damp cave air.</p>
<p>Most of all, though, Riku thought that Sora looked peaceful. He was covered in scratches and his legs were leaden; Riku could even see that Sora’s calves were slightly swollen, and he winced remembering the awful state of his hip after the fight with Xemnas.</p>
<p>Despite all this, Sora had fallen asleep, and he was smiling just as softly as he had when Riku dove into his dream a second time to save him.</p>
<p>It no longer surprised him to see Sora at ease in this kind of situation. Now he was the one carrying this heavy weight of a heart stored in a feather-light hotbox—one he could still hardly believe had once been able to lift him.</p>
<p>Sora was a burden on his legs and his lower back, and hard to carry with the injuries he had himself, but he was one Riku was proud to hold.</p>
<p>Riku felt his lips turn up as his eyes drifted to Sora’s face, and he noticed his smile reflected all around him, distorted and fuzzy and clear all at once depending on where he looked.</p>
<p>He’d taken note of the walls when he’d entered the passage, but hadn’t realized how much the crystals reflected and glowed.</p>
<p>And while these otherworldly, cyan crystals had a bit of a white aura, Riku also noticed that they reflected a different color at a different angle.</p>
<p>He looked up and saw an arrangement of skylights letting an ethereal, purple veil of light pass through.</p>
<p>The starry sky behind the haze was perhaps as beautiful a sight as that of Sora still resting quietly in his arms.</p>
<p>He thought suddenly of the secret place. Riku remembered how they had investigated the spooky sounds made by the wind passing through together. How they’d drawn so many things on the walls over the years. How Sora had crushed him by drawing the paopu on it that fateful night. How it’d taken him years to figure out why that hurt him so much.</p>
<p>There were no doodles on the walls here—only reflections: reflections of Riku carrying the person he loved most.</p>
<p>He walked under a particularly bright ray of light and Sora groaned slightly, stretching his neck and left arm, which he allowed to droop onto Riku’s shoulder.</p>
<p>Riku stared transfixed, Sora’s fingers clutching his back, as Sora’s eyes fluttered open and his pupils swam into focus.</p>
<p>“Riku?”</p>
<p>He’d lost the ability to hide his Sora smile after diving into Sora’s dreams, but Riku could at least manage to avert his gaze to a detached peek—something approaching their norm. Though he sometimes wondered if even that was “normal”.</p>
<p>“Morning, sunshine.”</p>
<p>But Sora didn’t respond. Instead, as his eyes drew into focus, his gaze met Riku’s. Riku tried to avoid it, but Sora, undeterred, chased it and smiled softly.</p>
<p>Tilting his head, perhaps satisfied, Sora swung his other arm around Riku’s neck and held on tight, grinning wide.</p>
<p>“Starting a staring contest, are we? I’m not sure you’re up for that,” Riku said.</p>
<p>Sora shook his head slowly and mumbled his dissent, continuing to stare straight into Riku’s eyes.</p>
<p>Unable to avoid Sora’s gaze and feeling his cheeks grow warm, Riku pressed his lips together and scrunched his face, turning away from him sharply as he stopped in his tracks.</p>
<p>“Sorry...”</p>
<p>Sora’s eyes fell.</p>
<p>“Don’t worry about it,” Riku muttered, pressing his face into his shoulder in an attempt to pretend his cheek had just been itchy before he cautiously looked back at Sora.</p>
<p>“I just think, you know, you always look so honest and sincere. When you look at people,” Sora said, his voice still a bit hoarse from his nap.</p>
<p>An uncomfortable jolt of warmth hit Riku’s jaws, and he clenched his fist a bit against Sora’s jacket.</p>
<p>Riku had assumed Sora was just sleepy. Had he really been staring at him?</p>
<p>“W-what do you mean?”</p>
<p>“Well, I mean, I... it, it kinda makes my heart beat a little faster. You’re so decisive, and so kind, and it just... shows, when you do that. For a while you weren’t kind, but, well, I knew what you were really like the whole time, so...”</p>
<p>Sora trailed off, apparently discomfited by Riku’s still silence.</p>
<p>Now Riku’s heart was beating a little faster, and his legs felt at once both frozen and restless.</p>
<p>“Um, is it alright if we sit down?” Riku suggested.</p>
<p>Sora nodded.</p>
<p>Keeping his arm muscles tight to support Sora’s body, Riku lowered himself down onto the ground and twisted to place Sora immediately next to him.</p>
<p>“Do you... mind I sit on your lap? It still hurts a lot, and I don’t want to sit on rock.”</p>
<p>Riku pressed his lips together and hummed a “yes”, unconsciously sighing as Sora’s weight was lifted from his shoulders and arms, and his tensed muscles released. Opening his arms, he helped Sora sit on the side of his lap, his injured legs swung carefully over Riku’s left thigh.</p>
<p>Sora clutched Riku’s shoulder again and leaned in. “It’s kind of chilly, too, so... this is nice...”</p>
<p>As easy as it had been to carry Sora, Riku felt such a strong tingle of relief in his wrists from having put him down that, for once, he didn’t clench his fists.</p>
<p>Instead, he sighed again and hummed in agreement, resting his head against a small crystal that jutted out of the cave wall and trying not to think about his friend leaning his head on his shoulder so much.</p>
<p>Sora briefly looked away and stared silently—back toward where they’d come from, perhaps in awe of the mystical sight of the cave—but he eventually lost interest and let his head relax between Riku’s shoulder and his own.</p>
<p>It was quiet for a little while. Without the sounds of Riku’s footsteps and Sora’s soft snores, there was a bell-like, reticent buzz that seemed to be coming from the crystals on the cave wall. The sound bounced off other crystals and made a subtle melody. It made for comforting white noise, but Riku wasn’t sure he could fall asleep to it like Sora had.</p>
<p>Feeling movement on his legs, Riku peeked down at Sora. Sora was whining softly as he tried to pick up his legs, his brow furrowed in apparent frustration at his lack of success.</p>
<p>It was just like Sora to refuse to give up, just as Riku had when he couldn’t get <em>his </em>legs to move.</p>
<p>This time, he had to be there for Sora—to show him that, sometimes, it was okay to rely on somebody else, even if you were used to leading the way. Riku’s need to allow himself to be included in the group mirrored Sora’s need to occasionally include himself as a member, not just a leader who had to handle everybody’s problems.</p>
<p>He placed a hand on Sora’s shoulder and felt his cheeks soften into a smile, and Sora’s efforts to move his legs stopped. He sighed and leaned his head closer to Riku’s hand.</p>
<p>Then, they returned to silence for just a little longer.</p>
<p>“Thank you for carrying me,” Sora finally said. “How long did I sleep?”</p>
<p>That was a hard question for Riku to answer when every second Sora spent in his arms felt too short—a paltry recompense for the hundreds of days (approaching a thousand) they’d had to spend apart. Those days would never be made up, and Riku wanted all of them back. His time with Sora felt so precious that he just couldn’t perceive it the same way. He couldn’t even guess as to how long Sora had been sleeping.</p>
<p>“Don’t worry about it. Just returning the favor,” Riku replied instead.</p>
<p>“I guess...”</p>
<p>Sora clutched his silver necklace. “But when I did that for you, you had been trying to help me—trying to protect me from you, even. I screwed everything up this time.”</p>
<p>“T-that’s not tr—”</p>
<p>“Yes, it is!” Sora insisted, startling Riku with how tightly he clenched his fist on Riku’s shoulder. “Everybody was safe and back home this time! Even you! But I was out here! I got myself stuck in this messed-up dream world! I got myself in that weird darkness form. I hurt you in that darkness form! You didn’t have to do anything, but you did anyway, and now you’re carrying me home. It’s all wrong! I’m a worthless mess!”</p>
<p>Tears flowed down Sora’s face, and he wept, each sob a stab to Riku’s heart.</p>
<p>None of this was Sora’s fault. But of course he felt like this; Sora’s heart was too good and kind not to.</p>
<p>And Riku knew that.</p>
<p>And Riku knew that he had to say something to let Sora know, to comfort him.</p>
<p>“If you can like getting in my messes, then I can like getting in yours. And, I do,” Riku said, and he used his left hand to cup Sora’s cheek and wipe away a tear.</p>
<p>Sora hiccuped and then bit his lip, leaving it halfway between a soft smile and a frown.</p>
<p>Was that too much?</p>
<p>But Sora leaned into it, so Riku just stayed like that and let him work out his sobs, rubbing his right hand against Sora’s back.</p>
<p>“I know. I know everything you’ve ever done for me now, Riku. And I’m grateful!” Sora’s eyes began to well up again. “But somebody as messy as me doesn’t deserve a friend as amazing as you.”</p>
<p>Sora pulled away from Riku’s hand on his cheek and wept into his right shoulder.</p>
<p>“It’s okay,” Riku whispered, continuing to comfort Sora with circular motions against his back, which spasmed and shivered with each sob. He didn’t think he could spill his heart to Sora—though, at this point, his toes were practically over the finish line—and had no idea whether he’d just hurt him more by doing so. But he also couldn’t stand to see him so utterly broken.</p>
<p>Is this how Sora had felt when he’d made that funny face—the face that had brought Riku to laugh for the first time in an entire year?</p>
<p>Riku took some inspiration from Sora and improvised. “Sora... You deserve everything I’ve done for you and more.”</p>
<p>“No, I don’t,” Sora whimpered into his shoulder, shaking his head vigorously.</p>
<p>Perhaps it was time to play to his own faults.</p>
<p>“In fact, I think I’ve let you down.”</p>
<p>With a loud sniff, Sora’s cries suddenly softened, and he turned his red, puffy eyes toward Riku, bewildered. There we go.</p>
<p>“You said you admire me because I’m honest. And... I haven’t been.”</p>
<p>Riku felt his entire existence shake, but Sora regarded Riku wordlessly, tears still falling silently and steadily down his cheeks and neck and wetting his tank and jacket.</p>
<p>As terrified as Riku was, Sora was comforted by those words. Wanting to give Sora some space for dignity, Riku found himself looking at the starry night sky, covered in misty pink light, and recalled the light that had shone in front of them in the realm of darkness—the one that had looked like a moon.</p>
<p>He realized he was hearing the crystals’ hum again as Sora stopped crying, his sobs reduced to the occasional, loud, messy sniffle.</p>
<p>“Sora, do you know where moonlight comes from?” Riku asked, and Sora tilted his head, puzzled.</p>
<p>“... the moon?”</p>
<p>Riku laughed. “Technically, the moon shines at night because it’s reflecting the light from the sun.”</p>
<p>Sora stuck his tongue out and crossed his arms.</p>
<p>“You know I knew that!” he said, finishing with a positively indignant sniffle.</p>
<p>Riku nodded and absentmindedly ran his finger through Sora’s surprisingly soft hair; even that felt warm somehow. Another slip, but it didn’t seem unwelcome. Sora eased into Riku’s hand and hummed.</p>
<p>“Sometimes, I wonder if the sun can see how much light it has,” Riku continued.</p>
<p>“Huh?”</p>
<p>Now Sora really seemed confused; his eyes wandering to the skylights as if to search for the moon or the sun. Riku pressed his palm against the floor, as if there was some emotional purchase to be found in its semicrystalline surface.</p>
<p>Sora wanted honesty and sincerity, and, apparently, Riku was about to provide it.</p>
<p>“I-I wonder if the sun also needs a bright, white moon somewhere out there, perfectly reflecting its light, showing the sun—no, showing the sun and the world—just how much light there is coming from it. Even at night, when nobody else can see it.”</p>
<p>Sora hummed, then leaned in and tilted his head; he still wasn’t satisfied.</p>
<p>“I’ve always... loved the moonlight. Sometimes, it looks like it’s covered in darkness, but even then, the moon is still out there reflecting the light to somebody in some other world.”</p>
<p>Riku’s eyes had closed at some point, and he could again visualize that moon on the dark shore. He could see Sora in front of the brilliant light that had appeared before it, holding out his arm and declaring, “We’ll go together.”</p>
<p>Yes. He was determined to go together with Sora, not just then, not just now—and he yearned to always be the sun to Sora’s moon, that he could always see the eager radiance of Sora’s reflection.</p>
<p>“... Riku, you say some weird stuff sometimes,” Sora said after a moment. Riku blinked.</p>
<p>But he didn’t let his fist clench. The words were in his mind. Sora needed it, and he had to share it with him. He had to know that he wasn’t worthless—at the <em>very </em>least, not to Riku.</p>
<p>“I said that because...because, Sora, you’re like that to me, and I’m glad to have you by my side.”</p>
<p>Out came the declaration more like a sigh, interrupted only by a brief gulp of air, and Riku felt a too-warm, prickly shiver throughout his entire body.</p>
<p>Sora inhaled sharply, then immediately darted his head away from Riku.</p>
<p>The gentle buzz returned for a while.</p>
<p>“Th-then... maybe... I-I’ve got something like that, too.” Sora fidgeted with the fingers in his right hand, then looked up at Riku with a slight, sheepish smile. “A-a light in the sky, to remind me that I can shine with the help of my friends.”</p>
<p>It was certainly just the glow from the crystals, but Sora’s cheeks seemed a little red. Riku hoped that his weren’t, too.</p>
<p>“Yeah. Always,” Riku replied.</p>
<p>Sora wiped his puffy eyes, nodded, and smiled.</p>
<p>“... But... What were you getting at with the whole honesty thing? It’s not like you were hiding that from me or anything.”</p>
<p>Riku gulped into a full-body shiver.</p>
<p>“Huh? Huh?”</p>
<p>Sora grinned and darted his head closer to Riku’s, and he looked down and sighed loudly.</p>
<p>“S-Sora...”</p>
<p>“Yes? Tell me already!” Sora teased, squinting at Riku’s averted eyes and smirking.</p>
<p>“Stop! This is serious, okay?”</p>
<p>Sora was taken aback by Riku’s tone and mumbled a quick apology.</p>
<p>“It’s okay! I just...”</p>
<p>Riku really didn’t want to say this part. But Sora was asking, and how could he ever say “no” to Sora?</p>
<p>“Sora, I... I love you.” “What?” Sora blurted out.</p>
<p>The word came out of Sora’s mouth like a fist to Riku’s diaphragm, and he swallowed a painfully large lump of air. He knew this had been a mistake. He had to...</p>
<p>“I—”</p>
<p>But as he tried to choke out some sort of response—some excuse, something about what he really meant—Sora gripped his hands and looked straight into his eyes.</p>
<p>“Is that a thing!?”</p>
<p>Sora’s eyes were big and bright, just like they had been when he’d removed his silly party glasses and saw that Riku had woken up, but this time, Riku didn’t have the slightest idea what he was so excited about.</p>
<p>“Is what a th—”</p>
<p>But Sora ignored him. He drew Riku into a big hug that forced that gulp of air straight back out, and he giggled and bounced in Riku’s lap with a huge grin.</p>
<p>“Sora—”</p>
<p>“See, I thought that maybe that was what was going on with me, but I never saw anybody in love—you know, like us—and then Donald and Goofy kept making fun of me, so I thought I was just kind of screwed up or you were my hero or something? But if you love me, then that means it’s real, and I’m not crazy, and I’m not broken, and... And...”</p>
<p>As per usual, Sora lost himself in his excitement, and the weight of Sora and his words, positively buoyant, was so overwhelming that Riku lost track of it all. He finally had an idea of what was going through Sora’s head when he set off on these eager spiels.</p>
<p>Riku laughed and sobbed and dug his head back into Sora’s shoulder and put his arms around him too, for the first time in years.</p>
<p>“Sora, I can’t belie—”</p>
<p>“I’m in love with you! I’ve been in love with you this whole time! I’m so happy I could—”</p>
<p>On a particularly excited bounce, Sora’s back slipped off Riku’s leg, and, unable to gather the strength to support himself, he slipped under Riku’s arms and tumbled off Riku’s lap and onto the ground.</p>
<p>“Oww!” Sora hissed. Riku extended his suddenly empty arms to offer two hands to Sora.</p>
<p>“You okay?”</p>
<p>Sora answered by quickly pulling himself back so he was sitting up, then grabbing Riku’s two outstretched hands, though his attempt at getting back up on his feet quickly ended in a wince and a drop of one of his hands to massage his calf.</p>
<p>“No worse than I was before, at least.”</p>
<p>Sora grinned—full-toothed, flushed, and a little bit teary—and, after lifting Sora back onto his lap, Riku found himself once again staring at his ridiculous and wonderful friend.</p>
<p>Well, perhaps “boyfriend” was the right word now. The thought left Riku even less sure what to say or do.</p>
<p>They stayed silent for a little bit.</p>
<p>The crystals simply continued humming, as if to lend a melody to the tension.</p>
<p>“Sorry! I kinda... screwed it up...” Sora broke the tension, raising his voice and his hand to the back of his head.</p>
<p>Riku chuckled again. Slow and with his fingers drawn back slightly, he brought one hand to gently caress the one Sora had placed back on his leg. Sora looked at him, his blue eyes teary and wide and lips slightly parted. Riku almost couldn’t help but release his other hand to cup Sora’s cheek, then lightly kiss him on the other one.</p>
<p>Sora was just as warm as he had been when Riku was carrying him, but the soft noise he made when Riku kissed him lit a veritable fireplace in his chest. The moment felt like home.</p>
<p>“Don’t ever apologize for being you,” Riku whispered, stroking his thumb.</p>
<p>Sora made that sound again as he leaned into the touch. He stared at Riku for quite some time with an expression Riku couldn’t quite read.</p>
<p>Finally, Sora pouted, puffed his cheeks and yanked his hand out of Riku’s, placing it firmly on Riku’s shoulder.</p>
<p>“Can’t you take a hint?”</p>
<p>Then Sora put his other hand on Riku’s neck, and he tugged Riku’s lips to his own—and that sound right back out of Riku.</p>
<p>And now Riku felt even more at home. Their first kiss tasted salty, like sweat and tears, but also like the air on the island where they’d grown up together. It was perfect.</p>
<p>Riku pulled back for a breath. He would have to find a way to not hold his breath the whole time.</p>
<p>“... did you like it?” Sora asked, his cheeks flushed so cherry red that Riku could hardly tell that he had been crying so much earlier.</p>
<p>“Of course.”</p>
<p>Riku lowered his head down toward Sora to kiss him again, but Sora put up his arms, stopping the rise of his hands tentatively right below his neck.</p>
<p>Riku heeded even the hesitant call and drew back.</p>
<p>“Let’s get out of here, first!”</p>
<p>“Agreed.”</p>
<p>Riku’s eyes were drawn toward a bright light that had suddenly appeared deeper in the cave.</p>
<p>Of course.</p>
<p>If a dream was a wish your heart made, then it would make sense for the dream to end when the wish was fulfilled.</p>
<p>“We’ll go together,” Riku said, placing his arms under Sora.</p>
<p>“Yeah!”</p>
<p>With a firm nod from Sora, Riku lifted him up and carried him into the light—this time, the sun reflecting the moon.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I was a mod, so it's OK that I based this more off my experience reading Riku's character file than I did my experience reading Re⊕Mind.  Probably.</p>
<p>I'm blown away by what we were able to create together with Re⊕Collect, and, to be honest, I had trouble finishing edits on this fic because I was so dazzled by everybody else's work.  I still can't believe all these wonderful writers wanted to participate, but I'm <em>so</em> glad they did.</p>
<p>Special thanks to greeneggs101 for being an awesome co-mod, cloudcastor for the beautiful accompanying piece that appeared in the zine, and also to Paion for the beta!</p>
<p>Please check out all of the wonderful fics the other contributors worked super hard on, and a special thank you to those of you who supported the project and are coming back to leave kudos &lt;3!  We supported a great cause and couldn't have done it without all of you!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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